Khalifa Ababacar Sall

After visiting Khalifa Sall Dakar's popular former mayor who is serving a sentence for misuse of municipal funds in Rebeuss jail and promising that as president he would order his immediate release Seck secured Khalifa's support (AC Vol 59 No 18 Not lacking convictions)...

He has the advantage of incumbency in a much-reduced field of candidates following the publication of the Constitutional Council's 3 January decision to accept just five: the incumbent; former president Abdoulaye Wade's son Karim Wade; the rising opposition firebrand Ousmane Sonko; Dakar's jailed former mayor Khalifa Sall; and the virtually unknown Issa Sall who leads the University of the Sahel (AC Vol 58 No 16 Who loves ya BBY...

Meanwhile the President's main rival Khalifa Sall is sitting out a jail sentence on corruption charges which many believe were brought only to keep him out of the race for the presidency...

Having lost his first appeal against conviction for the misuse of municipal funds Khalifa Sall has been dismissed as mayor of Dakar by President Macky Sall – even though the ultimate decision on his guilt has yet to be taken by the Court of Cassation (AC Vol 59 No 17 President plays by his rules)...

The verdict is now awaited in the appeal of the Mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall against his conviction in March for misappropriating CFA1...

A new report from Amnesty International calls Khalifa Sall's original trial and conviction unfair and also criticises the conduct of the earlier corruption trial of Karim Wade...

However that is in sharp contrast to Khalifa Sall who remains hugely popular among Dakar voters and it is his case that leaves Macky most exposed to accusations of using the judicial system for political ends...

Supporters of the charismatic and popular PS Mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall feel this reform is being applied to the capital and its suburbs in a manner that deliberately undermines him because he is potentially Macky's strongest challenger in the 2019 presidential poll...